The London action: another step, revealing Western political technologists

Introducing the Platform London (PL), the environmental enlightenment mission as a human rights organization reveals the managers of the Anti-Azerbaijan campaign.

Organizer of the London protest

On June 12, a protest action is planned to hold in front of the headquarters of BP in London. The date and place of the protest action is not a coincidence: On the same day, the opening ceremony of the first European Games will be held in Baku. The protest is a part of the campaign, started with the slogan- “Stop the Oil Games”

It is not surprising at all for the NGO, based in London, to break stereotypes and dare to oppose the company representing the interests of the UK.

The point that encourages the action organizers is target-Azerbaijan. Being one of the sponsors of the first European Games reasoned the Platform London to hold a “protest action against BP.” The NGO representatives have declared that “they are concerned on the conditions of human rights in Azerbaijan and BP should not support the event in the country of troubled human rights.” The participants of the protest action plan to gather in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in this city.

In order to show the protest action grandiose, PL has used all the means. The organization has published announcement on the media a week ago and launched a campaign on the social networks. The statement, addressed to sportsmen and journalists has been prepared and expected to read during the action. The content of the statement is about “to help releasing imprisoned civil right defenders and journalists.” The book about BP’s work in Azerbaijan and massively focused on the criticism of Azerbaijan, will also be presented during the protest action.

The above mentioned lines are taken from the official releases of the platform.

From the first sight, the release can leave an impression as if the human rights conditions are “not normal” Azerbaijan. The high-level organization, mobilizing the world community, has held a serious protest action in one of the leading capitals of Europe and tries to eliminate such an “abnormality”.

But it is enough to carry out a short study to reveal that the luxuriously presented text is nothing but the depictive foam. Anti-Azerbaijan mood has put out clients and organizers of the protest action so much that they have forgotten to remove the facts unmasking themselves.

Alongside the incorrect presentation of PL about human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan, the organization’s own situation, unsatisfactory image, unseriousness and most important- the arguments, revealing insincere releases about the real reasons of the protest action, was not eradicated.

The Reality

Only 2 persons have supported the 7-day online campaign, run by PL on the social networks defending Rasul Jafarov, arrested for tax evasion and other financial machinations.

The supporters of the campaign for Khadija Ismail’s defense are 3 persons, although the organization made a public announcement and addressed 694 persons in order to get support on Facebook. After all this, the campaign could not get social support, and there were also people who criticized the campaign.

Certainly, we do not except that after release of the article in order to eradicate the “mistakes” they will increase the number of “likes” speedily. Besides, during the protest action, it is expected to misuse “fake crowd organizing” methods in order to demonstrate to their clients.

This tactic is among the most recommended by the western technologists to the NGOs organizing protest actions: it is enough to hinder a person for several seconds under pretext of distribution of booklets in crowded places. The person seeing that the booklet about the uninteresting subject for him and although he throws the booklet into a dustbin, there is no difference and it does not change anything: The opportunist photographers of the action’s organizer have already taken photos and archived them. This is enough for the campaign that has 2 supporters in reality, to be presented crowded. In order to prove the thesis of “the international public opinion is against Azerbaijan,” they will finalize the order sharing the photos of solidarity of the protest organizers and “hundreds of action participants.”

It is obvious from information on PL’s website that they not only lack member supporters but also could not maintain effective relations with influential networks at all. PL’s name is not on the list of the prestigious international networks, specialized on environment protection.

As a partner, the organization has only shown Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and Friends of the Earth Europe, although the latter does not show any official information considering PL as a partner on its webpage.

PL has not been honored for the membership at the NGO networks and Unions: neither at the Global Environment Fund (http://www.globalenvironmentfund.com) nor at the Environment Network (http://www.environmentnetwork.org ).

PL’s name was not coincided also in the list of NGOs of UN environment program (http://www.unep.org/ ), working successfully in the environment sphere.

No any recorded measures on the human rights sphere were taken.

The organization's activities in this field are limited by expressing solidarity with Amnesty International. Although the organization was founded in 1983, but during 32-year activity period PL organized only 3 memorable activities (in fact, studies) and each of them, were against the regions that were in the target of the UK and indirectly pursued the interests of this country.

One of the memorable actions was about Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in 2002. As a part of the campaign to achieve Azerbaijan’s concessions on oil revenues consequently, it was made a pretext that Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline can create ecological problems. Except of this activity, there are not any other serious protests organized by PL. Actually, there are not other expectations from the organization (http://platformlondon.org/donate/) with a budget consisting of “10-30-euro donations.”

GONGOs (A government organized non-governmental organization) are not organized by only governments. Everybody knows that transnational organizations also organize unofficial supporters in the NGO sphere. It is not new tactics. In order to supervise the public opinion, transnational organizations found NGOs (like GONGO) with international status

These transnational companies, supervising the public sector of the country that they have business via “local partners’ of the “International NGO”, gain the mechanisms to influence the governments and dictate their wills.

Of course, the option to use these NGOs in order to avoid from available objections is very productive. From this point of view, PL’s latest action might be assessed as the organization’s effort to strengthen its position among the satellites of BP. A probability of different aspects is also increased because of PL’s insistence to hold the protest action after BP representatives told BBC that they consider the organization’s protests unimportant.

Serious aspects attract attention while investigating the issue with PL. The NGO, founded 32 years ago and focused on unsuccessful environmental enlightenment, at once have become active and is introduced as human rights defenders in London. It arise an interest.

Who needs to clean own dust via finding not specialized NGO in the corner in spite of teens of NGOs, specialized on human rights and why is it needed?.

Let’s look for the answers to these questions in PL, joining anti-Azerbaijan campaign in its debut in the field of human rights. The answers give important information not only about PL, but generally about western technologists who manage the anti-Azerbaijan campaign, their dirty technologies, as well as the desperate situation in which they find themselves.

The dilemma for Western technologists

The campaign, conducted against Azerbaijan in the last year, in fact, turned into a boomerang effect against its organizers. In the overall context, the last year can be characterized as the period of the collapse of Western illusions, not only in Azerbaijan but also in the whole post-Soviet space. The crisis, started in November, 2013 within Eastern Partnership program of the European Union, in parallel intensified the socio-economic, political and especially moral crisis, frozen for a long period of time in Europe. It became clear that, the game started in Ukraine was designed for even greater conflicts. To quarrel neighbors, instigate internal conflicts in order to ensure own interests not only undermined the confidence to the West, on the other hand increased efforts to evade being a target as a result of the games of west. In the process, not only terrible intentions, but also the mechanisms of the West to sacrifice the region were unmasked. In particular, the use of civil society institutions in this game was prevented.

The exposure of their activity was a surprise to Western technologists, and caused confusion. New methods for the continuation of the games on the former Soviet Union has not been invented and old ones are not working. What to do? The observations suggest that the strategy of benefiting through symbolic changes on the old, proven methods was chosen. The appearance of the Platform London can explain it. There is a need to come to the scene with new names.

What is the difference between Gayane Arustamyan and Khadija Ismailova?

The report of freelance journalist from Armenia Gayane Arustamyan was heard in the first media conference in the framework of the Eastern Partnership of the European Union, held May 20-21 in Riga. She complained that the state of human rights in Armenia was not reflected in details at the session, attended by Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks. G. Arustamyan said that he was threatened with arrest, and even feared for her life. According to her, all of her appeals to state bodies remain unanswered, and she does not find protection from international organizations. It is noteworthy that during the session Nils Muižnieks did criticize Azerbaijan as a country where the "independent journalism is stifled", but not Armenia presenting to the audience Khadija Ismayilova’s arrest in distorted form. This is his traditional position. However, this gentleman is missing one important point. The event, in which he is involved are not closed, it can be followed through a live broadcast. And the whole world is witnessing hypocrisy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4781&v=Xbr-BMiwy-c). Another detail that attracts the attention at the conference - both organizers and participants emphasized that since the beginning of the "Eastern Partnership" program, the media did not develop in the member countries, but rather over the past 6 years it regressed. The current situation was assessed as a result of inept ideological activity of authors and performers of the program.

Some time later, at the end of May, the annual meeting of the European media organizations was held and following the discussions it became clear that the worst media conditions in the continent are in the Balkans. Moreover, the crisis is not only financial. The region suffers from falling into the influence of certain forces, journalists are subjected to pressure and harassment. Tears stifle the journalist from Macedonia Tomislav Kesarovsky. He states that is threatened, and continues journalist activity, risking life. However, the end becomes interesting again - the representative of the European Union offers to conduct discussions on Azerbaijan...

Such examples are numerous. But let’s back to the action of Platform London.

Artificial "vent" for the anti-Azerbaijani campaign

Western political scientists, convinced of the ineffectiveness of their processes, carried for decades and seen an exposure of their hypocritical and malicious game, they has chosen to get out of the situation, using the tactics of scapegoating the different countries. Let’s imagine: Western intervention did not solve any of the problems of the former Soviet Union, no conflict has been solved yet, people's expectations from the West has not been realized. Naturally, the Western political technologists have to give a report on the matter.To prevent this, new tactics is developed and they try to break the deadlock facing different countries of the region with all sorts of challenges.

In order to turn public opinion in the desired direction, they first tried to work through “the popular expert’s columns”, and then the international NGOs. Azerbaijan stood in front of these campaigns and could expose the other side. Then Western technologists were forced to come to the scene with "heavy artillery". On June 5, Commissioners for Human Rights of the EU, OSCE and UN release a joint statement. Civil society institutions of Azerbaijan made a statement in reply and exposed the campaign. Situation is hopeless ... Plans for forcing Azerbaijan to concessions, taking advantage of the first European games, failed, in this area there is no success. Now they make the last steps. However, they do not have any energy to come on stage, say a word and no arguments to prove. In order not to admit defeat, they brings the last reserves, for example, the Platform London, used to stay in the corner.

Through research on the subject, I came across an interesting fact. Foreign citizen Emma Hughes was arrested at Baku airport and returned back. It was decided to use it in anti-Azerbaijani campaign exaggerating the news unilaterally. The first information on this issue appears on the site of PL. And an article is authored by Rebecca Vincent. Her name is well known to Azerbaijani readers. In 2012, the year when the Eurovision Song Contest held in Baku, she was the coordinator of the NGO coalition called International Cooperation Group. However, attempts to overshadow the success of Azerbaijan failed, her work was fruitless. Contest in Baku had a great success and brought glory to Azerbaijan. Moreover, Azerbaijan was subsequently entrusted implementation of the first European Games. At the beginning of 2015, a coalition of sports and human rights, designed to fight against Azerbaijan during the European Games was established. It is not difficult to guess that the coordinator is Rebecca Vincent again.

Again defeat: mobilizing efforts, civil society in Azerbaijan fought back and the coalition failed. Now Rebecca had to find a new platform for herself: Platform London. Experience suggests that the action of Rebecca and her patrons will collapse and have no affect, other than self-exposure. About how Rebecca is set to anti-Azerbaijani way, the reasons relating her to anti-Azerbaijani forces – we will inform you in the next publication. (APA)